I came here looking for a gear guide. The biggest take away I got from my brief time blogging was this… the majority of players are NOT that lean, mean knowledgeable machine you speak of. It only seems that way because they are the most vocal, on blogs, forums, and appropriately named sites such as Elitist Jerks. I will not look to these voices for gear guides because they do not apply to me. Your gear guides are the most helpful because, as someone mentioned above, you provide explanations. You account for different play styles and YMMV factors, allowing your faithful feral readers to come up with our own custom gear choice lists based on the information you provide vs. just because it’s best in slot.

Mama Druid, still not 80 and in need of a leveling gear guide. If there’s one of me, there’s bound to be more!

I guess what I really meant is confidence in how much your posts help alot of druids.

I always read this blog with interest and enjoy your writings and your rants, and VERY much appreciate your guidance on feral druids! Your advice has helped my understanding of the class, its skills and mechanics quite a lot. With a lvl80 bear tank druid that I’m going to be spending a lot more time playing when next patch hits simply because of how AMAZING bears will look (wheeee!), I will definitely be one of the readers that will appreciate any further guidance on bears that you can share with us!

It IS true what Cassie said – many more annoying people will leave nasty comments than the nice ones, and the people who do appreciate it may not be nearly as vocal. But that’s the curse of anything with a “comments” section, be it a blog, a restaurant guestbook, a movie review site, or an airline. :)

But BBB, you DO have readers out there who truly appreciate your insight and efforts.

Even for geared up bears, this would be helpful post 3.2 with the emblem changes.

For past gear information there’s a forum sticky for 80 quest rewards, rep rewards, PVP, and heroic drops:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12891291063&sid=1

And there’s the invaluable Druid wiki. Scrolling down on the bear list by slot gives you early Northrend quest reward items.

Actually I found a lot of the easiest/biggest upgrades if you do not raid a lot is still PVP gear and crafted gear.

I am totally confident in what I do. What I debate with myself is time versus rewards.

The rewards are helping people that can use a little advice.

When I started realizing, a long time ago, that 99% of the comments I was getting were from people who knew all this stuff already, then I had a reality check about spending 5 hours researching a post just to find out that it was helpful for noone.

I don’t feel like I have to try and stake a claim as the smartest or best theorycrafting bear out there. I don’t have that particular ego problem. I jut wanted to have fun and help folks out with what I knew. If others already know it, why should I become the blah blah pontificating bear that just reheats tired old spam?

So I’ve gone to writing things and talking about things that are fun or that are on my mind. In the process, if anything, I write things that are more controversial and are more worthy of being flamebait, simply because it’s my opinion, not fact based on math. I don’t think that indicates a lack of confidence in myself.

As others have pointed out, and are totally accurate, the WoW player of today is a lean, mean, knowledgeable machine, that knows darn well what’s happening. And that is due to the masters of Elitist Jerks more than eanything else, they keep pushing the boundaries, and God bless them for it.

Cassie was just pointing out to me why I stopped 5 hour research posts in the first place… nobody cared.

Since it seems some people really could still use a gear post, other than Jardal, I’ll get one done properly… and I’ll look forward to some folks getting some use out of it, I hope.

I think there is a lack of info for new bears and even old boomkins and resto druids who are taking up feral as their dual spec. Most of the remaining feral druid bloggers are end game raiders crying about Ulduar nerfs. I think you could perform a valuable service ;)